A careful conservation cleaning operation has been carried out on the ornate figure of St Michael which hangs in the shrine of the Scottish National War Memorial. The beautiful timber carving – which symbolises hope for mankind’s eventual triumph over the evil of war – is suspended from the vaulted ceiling 9.3m (approx. 30 feet) above the casket which holds the Roll of Honour of the Scottish war Dead. Historic Scotland, which maintains the war memorial which is located at Edinburgh Castle, has completed the week-long job ahead of the Easter weekend and the start of the main tourist season.

The use of cutting edge laser technology to survey and interpret heritage structures will be discussed at an international conference in Scotland this month (April 22 and 23), organised by Glasgow School of Art and Historic Scotland. The 2009 Digital Documentation Conference - to be attended by leading experts from around the world – will also address the practical use of 3D laser scanners, high-resolution digital photography and digital visualisation.

Newark Castle – once home to the notorious murderer and wife-beater Sir Patrick Maxwell – is marking 100 years in state care. Despite his wickedness the laird was a man of impeccable architectural taste and in the 1590s he remodelled his home by the Clyde in the latest Renaissance style. In later centuries the castle was largely obscured by the huge shipyard developments of Port Glasgow.

Stirling Castle has yet again been ranked as one of the country’s best visitor attractions. VisitScotland has renewed the castle’s coveted five-star status, marking it out as somewhere visitors can be confident of a warm welcome, excellent facilities and an super day out.

Experts believe they may have discovered a 13th-century stonemason’s sketch for the building of a section of St Andrews’s Cathedral. A series of markings on the underside of a pillar fragment appear to show carefully drawn and scribed lines showing the plan of a wall with a three-lobed attached column. There is also a set of four circles, neatly created using a compass, which could be the plans for the bases of small columns which still exist on the upper surface of the base.